Nokia is apparently considering ditching the colourful polycarbonate body of its Lumia range for an aluminium design — to make its next smart phones thinner and lighter.
The report comes from “sources familiar with the matter”, talking to The Verge, who explained that Nokia is mulling the modified materials for at least one device in its 2013 lineup. The phone — apparently codenamed Catwalk — will sit at the top of Nokia’s pile, replacing the Lumia 920 as the flagship.
I’m a fan of the rounded, polycarbonate design of the Lumias, but there’s no denying the 920 is a whopping great beast. With an aluminium construction, Nokia is hoping to reduce the thickness and weight of its new range.
But if it’s not using plastic, will it lose its colourful edge? Worry not. Nokia was able to slather its aluminium N8 in funky hues and it’ll certainly do the same if again if it does indeed opt for a metal Lumia.
The Verge’s man on the inside explains the new phone will share similar internal specs as the 920, which is disappointing. The 920 has plenty of power, sure, but it would be nice to see Nokia really push the boat out, upping the dual-core chip to a quad-core model and popping in extra RAM to cope better with multi-tasking. Hopefully it will keep — and even improve — the already good camera.
There’s no word at all on when we could expect to see such a phone, but the mighty tech shows CES kicks off in Vegas next week. Mobile World Congress — where Nokia showed off the PureView 808 last year — takes place in February, and seems a more likely bet for a launch.
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